[lfc-news] Benitez: Cup win won't affect summer changes - Post

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Liverpool Daily Post, 27 May 2005
Benitez: Cup win won't affect summer changes
By Andy Hunter, Daily Post

RAFAEL BENITEZ will not allow sentiment to stand in the way of plans to
create a new Anfield dynasty this summer as he proceeds to dismantle his
European champions.

The Liverpool manager was still savouring the greatest triumph of his
career as the five-time European Cup winners returned home to a
tumultuous reception yesterday. But even amid the hysteria of a proud
city Benitez was plotting how to turn his Champions League heroes into
genuine Premiership contenders next season.

Benitez will be handed a treasure chest of around £30million this summer
and that figure could rise with a number of big-name departures from
Anfield.

Milan Baros, Harry Kewell and Jerzy Dudek could all be sold in the close
season while Dietmar Hamann, Vladimir Smicer, Igor Biscan and Mauricio
Pellegrino are out of contract.

And with on-loan El Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao, Gregory Vignal, Bruno
Cheyrou, Alou Diarra, Carl Medjani and possibly Anthony Le Tallec all
advised to find new clubs in the close season Anfield is prepared for a
mass cull.

Even those who shone in Istanbul - Dudek, Smicer and Hamann - are
unlikely to be reprieved by their European Cup achievement.

Benitez insisted: "It is my responsibility to make these decisions and I
have a very clear idea about the future.

"I will talk to the players about my plans. What has happened in this
final doesn't change things. I knew the players before the final and
after the final I still know them.

"We cannot change everything but there will be changes.

"The interesting thing now we have won the European Cup is that other
players will see we have a good team and they will want to come with us.

"We need a new mentality in the Premier League, especially away from
home, and when we have that things will be much better for sure. We will
have a better team next season.

"We were 60% of what I wanted, now we are 70%. We still have to improve
a lot. I am always trying to analyse why things happen.

Benitez added: "Why are we fifth? We know we must improve. If we want to
win more trophies we must improve."

Villarreal keeper Jose Reina, Real Zaragoza centre-half Gabriel Milito,
Owen Hargreaves, and Feyenoord striker Dirk Kuyt are on Benitez's wish-list.

But the inflated price of homegrown talent will continue to deter the
Liverpool manager from buying only British.

He explained: "We need to change some things and find new players. I
want good players, good professionals. It would be good to sign a lot of
English players but the market is so expensive you have to look
everywhere. It is the most expensive market in the world."

Whatever the ins and outs at Anfield during the close season Benitez is
adamant Liverpool will become a more serious domestic force next year.

He added: "As a manager and as a person I am very proud of my team. It
was the best night of my life in football.

"It is very difficult to win a trophy, especially in your first year in
a foreign country. And the Champions League is the most important and
difficult to win. When I decided to come here it was to challenge for
trophies and now we must work even harder to win more."

Meanwhile Harry Kewell is to undergo surgery on his groin injury today.

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